in the corridors of power

The ambassador showed me to the door.
"I met a friend of yours last week, Robert Fisk," he said by way of annoying me as we parted.
"Why do you hate me?" I replied.
"He gave a talk in Dublin."
"Did anyone die of boredom during it?"
"It was very insightful."
"I doubt it."
"A pity you weren't there. You might have learned something."
"Why don't you just shoot me?"
"Okay I'm not saying he's right or wrong. I'm saying it was interesting."
"The usual anti Israeli clap trap I presume."
"He did make one very interesting point on that score," said the ambassador, "he said that Israel is the only country at the United Nations which still has not got internationally recognised final borders. The only one after all these years whose borders are not properly established."
My gentle preraphaeilite features turned a bit Gothic.
I was weighing up whether to debate the point or not.
The ambassador might have been a bit off.
Mr Fisk mightn't actually have said it that way.
He's normally fairly good on his basic assertions of fact.
Immediately  I could think of countries all over the world without finalised or defined or recognised borders.
Saudi Arabia and other desert countries have portions of their borders which have never yet been demarcated. So do a whole passle of African countries. Furher east my pals in India and Pakistan can't quite agree on their shared borders. They can't even agree to share. The Turks have all sorts of border disputes with everyone beside them. Closer to home, Spain agreed to give Olivenza back to Portugal sometime around 1815 in the Treaty of Vienna but never quite got around to it. The last time I checked Portugal still wanted it back and the border between those two countries is not demarcated in the region near Olivenza. Even the USA and Canada have disagreements on portions of their exact border. As for Ireland and Britain...
Too convoluted.
A cleverality argument designed to show how many countries I could list.
The ambassador would dismiss it with a wry chuckle as soon as I shut the door.
How about if I told him with my famous patented hang dog reproachful air that it would be more in his line and Robert Fisk's line, to observe that Israel is the only country in the United Nations which is regularly threatened with absolute destruction by another country?
Nah.
He's heard that one from me before and it didn't play.
I wondered was there anything I could say that the ambassador would actually retain and remember and who knows, possibly, even be influenced by.
I paused in the doorway.
"Robert Fisk," I said, "... reliably wrong about everything. Secondly... my best estimate of the situation in the Middle East is the beginning and end of all my analyses: the Holy People by which I mean the Jews are in the Holy Land because God wants them there. Thirdly... You are a clever man, much cleverer and more accomplished than I, and your knowledge of international affairs is based on direct experience. But I would refer you to the testimony of Gamaliel to the Sanhedrin two thousand years ago. If this is not from God, it will not last. But if it is from God, be careful. Lest you find yourselves fighting God."